Fragmentations of the molecular and fragment ions of methyl stearate, under 70 eV electron ionization (EI) conditions, have been studied by using collision-induced dissociation (CID) and metastable ion decay (MID) techniques. The CID and MID spectra of aged molecular ions M
i+· quite differed from the EI mass spectrum resulted from the in-source fragmentation of initially produced molecular ions M
0+· in pattern. The CID spectra of the M
i+· ion mainly showed peaks of
m/z 255, 199, and 143 ions, while CID spectra of these 56-Da periodical fragments showed only a preferential product ion at
m/z 101. CID spectra of other fragment ions also indicated that the
m/z 101 ion is a terminal product. The structure of the ion at
m/z 101 has been discussed.
View full abstract